News of: Friday, 10th of July, 2009

Front Page

The company was in the red for at least three consecutive years. It did not give dividend even for once in the period. It was far from being a hotcake company on the bourses. And because of its lacklustre performance, it was bracketed in the Z category at Dhaka Stock Exchange.

A parliamentary body investigating irregularities during the tenure of former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar asked the House yesterday to strip Sircar of his MP status and recover around Tk 2.50 crore he, his deputy and the then chief whip took illegally as medical bills, additional fuel allowances and other facilities.

The House passed a bill unanimously yesterday incorporating a number of new provisions into the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973 to try any individual or group of individuals on charge of war crimes in 1971.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday came down heavily on Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) for its recent report saying that it was ill motivated and a machination to undermine the parliament.

Strengthening joint patrol and preventing trans-border smuggling of illicit goods, specially drugs, will feature prominently at the director general-level conference of the border guards of Bangladesh and India that begins at BDR headquarters here on Sunday.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is set to resume its functions in full swing in a couple of days as the parliament passed a bill yesterday to this effect with a set of new provisions for strengthening the rights watchdog.

Bangladesh Thai Aluminium contested a report headlined "Magic art of turning Tk 43 into Tk 1,200" published in The Daily Star on July 8, saying the company's share price was never Tk 43 last year as mentioned in the report while the highest price was "much above" Tk 1,199.

The top leaders of banned JMB's splinter Islam O Muslim Abdur Rahim alias Shahadat and Selim alias Saifullah designated each other as the chief of the offshoot organisation during remand, police said yesterday.

The government yesterday deployed another 1,400 police personnel in Ashulia industrial zone raising the total to 2,000, and the crime management cell (CMC) starts functioning there today as part of beefed up security to check recurrence of chaos in garment industry.

Law enforcers are investigating whether militant suspect Shaheen is mentally imbalanced and how he got the bombs. They, however, could not thoroughly question Shaheen yesterday as he is still undergoing treatment for bullet and burn injuries.

BIWTA yesterday started an eviction drive at the foot of Kanchpur Bridge on the Shitalakhya at Narayanganj following the media report on encroachment and unauthorised sand trading on the flood plain of the river.

Editorial

THE Bangladesh Nationalist Party, like other political parties registered with the Election Commission as a political party to take part in the 29th December parliamentary polls on the stated commitment towards fulfilling the provisions of Representation of People's Order as amended by the immediate past caretaker government. Some of these provisions specifically related to effectively delinking the national political parties from their pre-existing student wings. In terms of these all registered political parties are forbidden from having any front or affiliate or associate body among the students, teachers and the labour.

IT does not surprise anyone that the nearly fifty canals which once used to flow through the nation's capital are today in a dying state. The absence of surprise stems from the fact that over the past several years these canals have stealthily and gradually been encroached upon, to a point where most of them are in very real danger of dying out. And yet, given the serious steps that were taken in 2004 to recover the canals, things ought to have been looking up at this point. WASA undertook a move to recover no fewer than 26 of the 43 canals that had been identified as being in the grip of encroachers; and as a matter of fact quite a spurt of activity was noticed at the time about a recovery of the canals.

THE Law Minister Shafiq Ahmed presented the International Crimes (Tribunals) (Amendment) Act 2009 in parliament this week, with the Speaker urging quick passage before the end of the current parliamentary session. The 2009 act presents some amendments to the original 1973 act to make it "contemporary" (jugupojogi), "fair and neutral," and "globally acceptable."

RECORDED history has it that when General Gabriel García Moreno, the absolute monarch of Ecuador, died after sixteen years of rule, a bizarre wake was held for him. His corpse was seated on the presidential chair, decked out in full-dress uniform and a layer of medals. In this country, a similar history has been repeating itself for oodles of years. We have two beloved leaders instead of one, and the end of wake isn't in sight.

THE AL led grand alliance government has just passed its first six months in power, which is 1/10th of its stipulated five-year term. Thus, we can weigh the functioning of the government in the first six months.

Sports

Seasoned shooter Sabrina Sultana combined with two young teammates Tripti Datta and Sharmin Shilpa to bring joy for hosts Bangladesh in the final day of the 5th South Asian Shooting Championship yesterday.

Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has said he considered suing the Pakistan cricket management for revealing, in a public statement, the skin ailment that forced him to miss last month's World Twenty20. The PCB's statement on his fitness ahead of the tournament in England said Akhtar had been diagnosed with genital viral warts; he was subsequently removed from the squad.

New Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza expressed his disappointment at the contract row that has forced them to face a very different West Indies side in the first Test following a boycott by the leading players.

England Under-19 routed Bangladesh Under-19 by ten wickets to secure victory inside three days at Scarborough. Asking Bangladesh to follow on after gaining a 232-run lead in the first innings, the English bowled them out once again, and knocked off the target of 45 at a rapid pace.

The West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) has accused the West Indies board of not responding to its submission of "marked up" retainer contracts last month and then penalising players for not signing the contracts in time. The board vice-president Dave Cameron, on the other hand, said contracts had not been signed because of the WIPA's "unreasonable behaviour".

Kevin Pietersen was excited by the prspect of England's spinners playing a major role in the first Ashes Test after seeing the Sophia Gardens pitch take turn here on Wednesday's first day of the series.

A new BOA president will be elected very soon as the resignation of its president and former Army chief General (retd) Moeen U Ahmed was accepted at an emergency meeting of Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) on Thursday.

Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, has expressed an ambition to join cricket administration in his home state of West Bengal though he did not specify when he would do so. Ganguly, who turned 37 today, was confident that the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) would appreciate his concern for the state's cricket and the difference he could make.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its growth projections for emerging Asia to 5.5 percent in 2009 and 7 percent in 2010, forecasting that emerging and developing economies will regain growth momentum in the second half of 2009.

Leaders of the exclusive club of eight industrialised nations opened up their forum Thursday to the five fastest developing market economies -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa -- tacit admission that their leadership alone is not enough to fix the world's major problems.

Food and Disaster Manag-ement Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque yesterday blamed international donors for failing in their commitments to lift millions out of poverty and compensate countries such as Bangladesh hurt by climate change.

In a news item published on July 5 titled "Marico gets nod to raise Tk 13.42cr through IPO", it was mistakenly said that the turnover of the company was about Tk 26.5 crore in fiscal 2007-08. Actually, the figure will be Tk 265 crore. We regret the mistake.

Metropolitan

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the food and disaster management ministry and other authorities concerned to take necessary advance preparation to deal with any possible flood in the current monsoon.

Law Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday said the government might start the long-awaited trial of war criminals within one month through passage of the proposed amendments to International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 in parliament.

The High Court (HC) yesterday sent to the Chief Justice the file on the writ petitions filed by Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam, his wife and their two sons challenging their convictions handed down by the trial court in a tax evasion case.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police in separate raids yesterday arrested four cadres of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouj (GMF) in the town and recovered firearms and ammunitions. The arms include one LG gun, one shutter gun, one revolver, four swords, three knives and 65 bullets. During a raid, a team of Rab-12 arrested GMF cadre Alamin Hossain from his house at Mongolbaria and recovered arms and ammo. Alamin recently came to the area to regroup the outfit. In another raid, a Detective Branch (DB) team arrested three cadres of the same outfit from Mazampur area of the town and recovered arms. The arrestees are Rakib, 22, Imran Hossain, 25, and Sohag, 23.

The average age of marriage for girls is 15.8 years in urban areas while it is 14.8 years in rural areas making them more vulnerable to early pregnancy complications that sometimes lead to death, says a government survey report.

Renowned interventional cardiologist Dr Satoru Sumitsuji from Osaka University, Japan performed some complicated procedures on patients having chronic total occlusion of arteries of heart at the Apollo Hospitals Dhaka recently, says a press release.

There have not been enough researches on climate change in the Saarc countries and they lack necessary information on this issue, said Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique yesterday.

Visiting Canadian Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Ministry Deepak Obhrai MP yesterday said opposition in a parliamentary democracy has a critical role to play to make the government accountable.

The High Court (HC) yesterday granted bail to former chief whip Abul Hasnat Abdullah, and former Awami League lawmaker Mostafa Rashidi Suza and his wife Khodeja Rashidi Suza in five separate cases against them.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) seized fake postal and revenue stamps worth around Tk 12.5 lakh, fake stamp-producing equipment and arrested four people in this connection from the city's Motijheel area yesterday.

Bangladesh Sweden Polytechnic Institute (BSPI) in Kaptai was declared closed for an indefinite period yesterday following serious brawl between Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Islami Chhatra Shibir over control of the campus.

A schoolgirl was gangraped and killed by criminals yesterday at Kannayanagar village under Nachole upazila. Victim Lipi Khatun, 16, daughter of Toimur Rahman of Gonoair village was a student of class ten of Verendi High School. Police said, Lipi was going to her relative's house at Mominpur. When she reached Kannayanagar area a gang of criminals strangled her after rape and threw her body in a pond. Police recovered the body from the pond and sent it to Chapainawabganj Adhunik Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy. There were marks of injury in her head and neck, police said.Victim's elder brother Anwarul Islam filed a case with Nachole police.

A Sylhet court on Wednesday awarded life term to a young man for murder. Convict Rubel, 22, hails from village Matijura of Beanibazar upazila. According to the prosecution story, Rubel stabbed to death Zainal Miah, 20, of his village on October 10, 2004, as a sequel to enmity over land property. A case was filed and police after investigation submitted a chargesheet against the accused on April 14 next year. Besides life term, the court fined Rubel Tk 50,000, in default, to suffer four years more in jail.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab-5) yesterday arrested two persons and recovered one kilogram of gun powder from their possession at Shibganj in Chapainawabganj. M Manik Mia, 22, of Kolabari of Shibganj and M Ashraful Islam, 25, of Shahidganj of Sirajganj were arrested from Israiler Mor area. Both tried to flee when the Rab team challenged them. Later one kilogram of gun powder was covered by searching their body.

Moulvibazar police on Thursday arrested a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader on charge of smuggling contraband Indian Nasir Bidi through border.Police said, they arrested Anwar Hussain, President of JCD Moulvibazar town unit with a microbus on suspicion that he was involved in smuggling. Amullya Kumar Chowdhury, Officer-In-Charge of Moulvibazar model police station said, police are interrogating the JCD leader. He will be sent to jail through the court today.

Police on Thursday recovered decomposed body of a madrasa student from a field in Chatmohar upazila. Victim Habibur Rahman, 13, son of Taiab Ali of village Mostanpur in Chatmohar upazila was a student of Jahirpur Madrasa. Police said, Habib went missing since July 2 he came out of his home to meet his playmates. Later his body was found at Charaikula field. A case was field and Chatmohar police arrested on suspicion Md. Amirul Islam, a friend of the victim.

Activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) yesterday confined the principal and some teachers of Rangpur Government College to a room for about an hour demanding 'quota' for admission of their chosen candidates to the honours classes.

Letters

Whatever my rivals do are bad and whatever we do are good. We also believe, whatever we say and whatever we preach, the people overwhelmingly believe and support us. So, the people are with us always and will remain so, all the time. Anything good done by other than us for peoples' welfare is not acceptable to the people because they do not understand their own good or bad. We love the country most while the others are out to sell out the very interest of the country. We still believe the election result of 29 Dec'08 was managed, people actually voted for us but others were declared elected with the help of some foreign hands.

What have Sachin Tendulkar, Bryan Lara and other veteran cricketers done for their nation? The answer to this question from the cricket lovers will undoubtedly be that they have done a lot. But when the same question is put to the cricketers themselves they usually try to avert the answer and say they have done nothing yet or little and are trying to do better. The same answer will perhaps come from the successful people in other fields also. Interestingly, in the case of our national cricket team captain Ashraful, without even facing the above question, he answered it quite arrogantly that he had done a lot for the country and wanted to do more. Astonishing! How could a cricketer like him make such an impertinent remark?

Accumulation of black money is the result of corruption, evasion of taxes and sometime crime. For a capitalist economy this is inevitable. The British empire flourished with the assets plundered from its colonies. So is the case of other colonial powers. The largest economy of the world, the US economy, was founded by slave labourers illegally brought from Africa. Later, the economy flourished on Mafia money lavishly invested in real estate, films and banking sectors. Now all these economies are white.

According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, the major constraint on foreign companies operating in Bangladesh is corruption, followed by inefficient government bureaucracy, policy instability, inadequate infrastructure and inadequate access to financing. Corruption is present in most interactions with public authorities. According to the World Bank & IFC Enterprise Surveys 2007, 85% of the companies surveyed expect to pay unofficial payments to 'get things done', while 55% identify corruption as a major constraint for doing business. Small and medium sized companies suffer most from corruption, as they devote proportionately more resources and time than larger companies to paying bribes and dealing with regulations. When bribes are measured as a share of costs by company size, the level of unofficial payments by the smallest companies (below 50 employees) is nearly five times the level paid by large companies (with over 159 employees). Private sector corruption is also widespread. While laws on disclosure of assets and conflict of interest exist, they are rarely enforced. Significant parts of the state budget (including state owned companies) remain outside legislative control. Former government employees or politically active persons often lead trade and business associations. According to the Transparency International Bangladesh Household Survey 2005, the private sector is highly corrupt in the country. While private public sector corruption is illegal, business-to-business corruption is not. Audits cannot always be trusted, as auditors rarely conform to international standards and are known to produce reports according to the wishes of the client.

It is a brief response to further comments received by me on gene mechanics. One of the purposes of writing, at this point in time, articles on genes was to trigger internal human motivation at local, global and other levels for intensification of exploration in sub-atomic areas of genes (used in an equivalent sense) - yet to come into existence though, because, for example, genes make up 2% of your DNA, the remaining 98% has no known function.

Home Minister Sahara Khatun claimed that law and order is improving but the ground situation is just the opposite. Terrorists killed three businessmen in mid day. Police opened fire and at least two garment workers died.

This refers to Mr. Md. Anwarul Kabir's article on morality published in your daily on 22nd June. Indeed, at this point of time religion has lost its strength to instil morality in human psyche. However, the reason behind this failure as Mr. Kabir has argued in the article, "This failure of religion can be explained in line with Freud's conscious and sub-conscious states of mind. Although the majority of Muslims consciously try to be religious, their sub-conscious mind contradicts it. The vehicle for religious belief is the fear of the Day of Judgment. Ironically, this fear is not effective in the sub-conscious of the modern people. The precondition of religion is the surrender to religious scriptures. But the logic oriented sub-conscious mind is reluctant to accept anything blindly. So, at present, though people consciously engage themselves in religious rituals, religion fails to reach its prime objective". I am not fully convinced.

'Where is my vote?' this was the question raised when Ahmadinejad was elected in Iran. But now our question is where is our government? Mobs are doing whatever they want. They are burning our mills and factories. Whatever logic they might have behind ransacking the factories, no sympathy is left for them. I felt helpless when I saw the workers destroying their own livelihood.

There is a new Bollywood release and this one has a really thick plot. People from the AL and the BNP now claim that when Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina were imprisoned by the military-backed government, they were served poisonous food! This is heavy stuff.

Kakrail mashjid, popularly known as Tablig jamaat mashjid, is situated in a nice place of beauty attached to Ramna Park. The architecture of the mashjid is also attractive. Many devotees come here for religious purpose. It is also a place of tourist importance and a place of glory for Dhaka as well as for Bangladesh.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you for your report "Parking on streets....." (July 01, 2009). The DCC has assigned a firm to collect tolls from parked vehicles on the streets. Now my question would be why would the DCC allow parking on streets for monetary benefit whereas such parking on streets should be totally banned so that the terrible traffic congestion in the city may be eased. I am a resident of Gulshan-2, Dhaka. In the last few months I have noticed the DCC has put up signboards on the main Gulshan Avenue that parking is NOT allowed on the main avenue and that parking should be made in assigned places of the DCC where you have to pay toll. I have since noticed that parking on the main Gulshan Avenue goes on unabated.

Recently, after the implementation of the energy saving policy by our government, part of one of the streets of Dhanmondi where I live was entirely lit up by wedding decoration lights for two whole days. Well, as long as they paid for consuming so much electricity others are probably not supposed to be bothered about it. However, a marching wedding band beating drums and playing trumpets throughout the day and in the middle of the night in a residential area did raise some eyebrows.

People of our country are envisioning 'Digital Bangladesh' whereas some crimes are being traced in the digital world. One such crime is cyber crime. It is actually a criminal activity done by users through the Internet. These crimes committed through the Internet are of several types. These include copyright infringement, software piracy, password cracking or cheating by others' ID, cyber pornography, e-mail threats, hacking others' websites and so on. Sometimes people superimpose the images of others through the Internet and create great problems. Hackers continue hacking of important websites across the globe as well as plunder the secrecy of others. For example, the recent hacking of Rab's (Rapid Action Battalion) website degraded the image of Bangladeshi defence.

It is historically proved that Afghanistan is a grave for any illegal occupant. That again has been reflected in the reality from where the USA cannot extricate itself. Now the USA has to expend 22,000$ per minute in war during the critical global recession and the cost is a big burden on Obama's administration.

Iran authorities, still reeling from the massive public protests over last month's election, warned yesterday of a harsh crackdown against any demonstration to mark the anniversary of student unrest which rocked the Islamic republic on this day in 1999.The warning was issued after the G8 world powers expressed "serious concern" over the violence unleashed after the hotly-disputed re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which left at least 20 people dead.

A massive bomb blast yesterday in central Afghanistan killed 25 people including primary school students, destroying shops and scattering pieces of the vehicle that carried the explosives more than a mile away, police said.

Pakistani jets killed 12 suspected militants in South Waziristan yesterday, a day after suspected US missile strikes killed up to 45 insurgents in twin strikes in the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, intelligence officials said.

Putting behind China's objections to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan to India, special representatives of the two countries will meet next month to resume their dialogue on finding a solution to their vexed border issue, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Thursday.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen has said the al-Qaeda leadership resides in the Federally administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and the United States is determined to defeat them.

Arts & Entertainment

Shammilito Shanskritik Jote paid homage to the recently deceased Language Movement veteran Advocate Gaziul Haq (1929-2009) on July 8, at the Central Shaheed Minar in the city. People from all walks of life attended the memorial.

Named after two of the most recognised artists of the country -- Zainul Abedin and Patua Quamrul Hassan -- an international painting competition for the children will be held in December. The event, "Zainul-Quamrul International Children's Painting Competition '09," will be organised jointly by Gendaria Kisholoy Kochi-Kachar Mela and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA). At a press conference, held at the BSA premises on July 8, the organisers informed about the competition in detail.

Mita Haque, a dedicated and popular Tagore singer has made her mark in the Bangla musical sphere. Growing up in music-oriented environs, she chose to specialise in the field of Rabindra Sangeet. Recently, the accomplished artiste spoke to The Daily Star about her musical career.

OP-ED

THE simmering discontent brewing over the reported sacking of some workers in the S. Suhi Sweater factory took a volatile turn on June 27 when the Ansars on duty fired at the agitating workers, killing two and injuring twenty-five on the first day of the violence. The clash ensued for three days and the demonstrators, many of them outsiders it is learnt, were inspired by a group of disgruntled jhoot traders who exploited this moment to establish their supremacy in the garments sector.

StarTech

It was a memorable evening of June 26, 2009. Seventeen journalists participated in a unique expedition organised by Nokia to launch their latest product, N97 in Bangladesh. Objective of the expedition to take in the scenic beauty of the rich and natural bounty called Sylhet and glide through a series of competitions, games and activities using the advanced and user-friendly features of the new Nokia N97.

In order to cater to users who require excellent graphical performance boosts and exceptional cooling from their graphic cards, Asus, producer of top quality graphic solutions has introduced the world's first overclocking version of the latest Nvdia GeForce 9600GT GPU the ASUS EN9600GT/HTDI/512M graphics card, says a press release.